Law and Order

There is a story about a student at Cambridge University in England who entered the classroom on exam day and asked the proctor to bring him cakes and ale. The proctor refused, expressing astonishment at the young student’s audacity. At this point the student read from the four-hundred-year-old Laws of Cambridge, which were written in Latin and still somewhat in effect.

The passage read by the student said, "Gentlemen sitting for examinations may request and require Cakes and Ale." The proctor was forced to comply. Pepsi and hamburgers were judged the modern equivalent, so the necessary accommodations were made for the student. After all, the law was on his side.

Three weeks later the student was summoned to the office of Academic Affairs to face disciplinary action and was assessed a fine of five pounds (about $7.50, the cost of the meal). He was not fined for demanding cakes and ale, but for blatantly disregarding another obscure Cambridge law: he had failed to wear a sword to the examination.

Funny but real

How we relate

laws

law of God?

Why a Law?

What is the law?

Why did God give it?

Relationship

Parent

Love

Boundaries

John 14:15 ESV

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Knowledge of Sin

Romans 3:20 ESV

For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Not to Save

Point out Problem

Need of Savior

mirror

plumb bob

Protection

Traffic Laws

other countries

My Speeding

Fear of cops

Happiness

Proverbs 29:18 NKJV

Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law.

Security bring happiness

Wife

locking everything

The Law Has Been Done Away

Done Away

Galatians 3:23–25 ESV

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,

Romans 6:14 ESV

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

2 Corinthians 3:7–11 ESV

Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

Something

Brought to End

But what

could it be???

Ephesians 2:15 ESV

by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,

“commandments expressed in ordinances”

You can see

something was

done way.

Yet.... Something

Still Applies

Matthew 5:17–18 ESV

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Romans 7:12 ESV

So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Romans 3:31 ESV

Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Done away??

Clearly

something has

something has NOT

I’m a New Covenant Christian

Hebrews

New Covenant

Hebrews 10:8–9 ESV

When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second.

Something

“done away”

Previous chapter

Day of Atonement

Feast Day System

What is New Covenant?

Hebrews 8:10 ESV

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Law done away?

Written in hear

come back to this...

Ellen White on Feast Days and the Ceremonial Law

The symbols of the Lord's house are simple and plainly understood, and the truths represented by them are of the deepest significance to us. In instituting the sacramental service to take the place of the Passover, Christ left for his church a memorial of his great sacrifice for man. "This do," he said, "in remembrance of me." This was the point of transition between two economies and their two great festivals. The one was to close forever; the other, which he had just established, was to take its place, and to continue through all time as the memorial of his death. {RH, May 31, 1898 par. 2}

Speaking of Communion

“In this ordinance, Christ discharged his disciples from the cares and burdens of the ancient Jewish obligations in rites and ceremonies. These no longer possessed any virtue; for type was meeting antitype in Himself, the authority and foundation of all Jewish ordinances that pointed to him as the great and only efficacious offering for the sins of the world.” - RH, June 14, 1898 par. 15

Ceremonial law

no more virtue

Next paragraph:

It was Christ's desire to leave to his disciples an ordinance that would do for them the very thing they needed,--that would serve to disentangle them from the rites and ceremonies which they had hitherto engaged in as essential, and which the reception of the gospel made no longer of any force. To continue these rites would be an insult to Jehovah. - {RH, June 14, 1898 par. 16

They thought

“essential”

but

no more force

Kicker:

“ To continue these rites would be an insult to Jehovah.”

Speaking of Communion

Christ was standing at the point of transition between two economies and their two great festivals. He, the spotless Lamb of God, was about to present Himself as a sin offering, that He would thus bring to an end the system of types and ceremonies that for four thousand years had pointed to His death. As He ate the Passover with His disciples, He instituted in its place the service that was to be the memorial of His great sacrifice. The national festival of the Jews was to pass away forever. The service which Christ established was to be observed by His followers in all lands and through all ages. {DA 652.2}

Key point:

The national festival of the Jews was to pass away forever.

One more

good measure

While the apostles united with the ministers and lay members at Antioch in an earnest effort to win many souls to Christ, certain Jewish believers from Judea "of the sect of the Pharisees" succeeded in introducing a question that soon led to widespread controversy in the church and brought consternation to the believing Gentiles. With great assurance these Judaizing teachers asserted that in order to be saved, one must be circumcised and must keep the entire ceremonial law. Paul and Barnabas met this false doctrine with promptness and opposed the introduction of the subject to the Gentiles. - AA 188-189

Key Point

Teaching was called

“false doctrine”

THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL

10 Stay

perfect

holy

righteous

good

cannot be done away

Not enemies

Allies

Seen in right light

John Wesley: "There is no [conflict] at all between the law and the gospel; that there is no need for the law to pass away, in order to the establishing of the gospel. Indeed neither of them supersedes the other, but they agree perfectly well together. Yea, the very same words, considered in different respects, are parts both of the law and of the gospel. If they are considered as commandments, they are parts of the law: if as promises, of the gospel. Thus, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,' when considered as a commandment, is a branch of the law; when regarded as a promise, is an essential part of the gospel; -- the gospel being no other than the commands of the law proposed by way of promises. Accordingly poverty of spirit, purity of heart, and whatever else is enjoined in the holy law of God, are no other, when viewed in a gospel light, than so many great and precious promises. There is, therefore, the closest connection that can be conceived between the law and the gospel. On the one hand, the law continually makes way for, and points us to the gospel; on the other, the gospel continually leads us to a more exact fulfilling of the law. The law, for instance, requires us to love God, to love our neighbor, to be meek, humble, or holy. We feel that we are not sufficient for these things; yea, that 'with man this is impossible:' But we see a promise of God, to give us that love, and to make us humble, meek, and holy: We lay hold of this gospel, of these glad tidings; it is done unto us according to our faith; and 'the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us,' through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

How Can I Live the Law?

Romans 8:7 ESV

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

Naturally

we reject law.

Mind on flesh

= disobedience.

Walking in Spirit

Galatians 5:16 ESV

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Spirit of the Law

I knew a woman who stopped for a few drinks every night after work to let traffic die down, then drove home, about a 45 minute drive in lower mainland traffic. She would say, "I'm fine, I've never had an accident and there are never any roadblocks on my route home. It's not like I am some staggering drunk who can't work or function in life."

A few months later a drunk driver hit and killed her 8 year old daughter while she was walking on the side of the road coming home from school. The person who killed her daughter was a successful respected female lawyer who ironically worked with family services on child abuse cases, she'd had had a few drinks at lunch. When she blew into the breathalyzer she was just at the legal limit .08.

We gave the woman who was grieving the loss of her daughter a portable breathalyzer to take to work and she went and had the usual drinks she would have after work, and she blew .18, more than twice what the lady who killed her daughter had. She never drove after drinking again, but for much different reasons than before her daughter was killed. She now knew the Spirit, or intent of the law which was to keep everyone safe.

Fruit of Spirit

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Hebrews 8:10 ESV

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

How view law?

Friend?

Foe?

In U.S. Navel Institute Proceedings, the magazine of the Naval Institute, Frank Koch illustrates the importance of obeying the Laws of the Lighthouse. Two battleships assigned to the training squadron had been at sea on maneuvers in heavy weather for several days. I was serving on the lead battleship and was on watch on the bridge as night fell. The visibility was poor with patchy fog, so the captain remained on the bridge keeping an eye on all activities.

Shortly after dark, the lookout on the wing reported, "Light, bearing on the starboard bow."

"Is it steady or moving astern?" the captain called out.

The lookout replied, "Steady, Captain," which meant we were on a dangerous collision course with that ship.

The captain then called to the signalman, "Signal that ship: 'We are on a collision course, advise you change course twenty degrees.'"

Back came the signal, "Advisable for you to change course twenty degrees."

The captain said, "Send: 'I'm a captain, change course twenty degrees.'"

"I’m a seaman second-class," came the reply. "You had better change course twenty degrees."

By that time the captain was furious. He spat out, "Send: 'I'm a battleship. Change course twenty degrees.'"

Back came the flashing light, "I’m a lighthouse."

We changed course.

Source: In the Eye of the Storm by Max Lucado, Word Publishing, 1991, p. 153

How view law?

Friend?

Foe?

No Speeding

no fear!

Same Team

Appeal

If… Law = Burden

View Law Rightly

Relationship

boundaries

marriage

If...

Ceremonial Law

Stop!

Offensive!

If...

Righteousness Eludes

walk in spirit